Other club football

David McGoaldrought has turned down a contract at Derby to sign with Notts. I'm going to have to make an effort to like him now.

Steve Cooper says Hi.

The have Lukaku, we have Wood.

In reality, City outplayed us. Haaland missed quite a few chances…but we did have that goal (sigh).
Which,for the Russ’s of this world, also shows why Freuler was called “the conductor.” *

I'm sorry, what?

youtu.be/kGOSfQ-2vlA?t=480

Two five yard passes, both under no pressure, both in our own half, neither progressive, show why he was called "The Conductor"? Are you his agent?

I don’t know why he was originally called the conductor, but the few times I saw him live I thought his strength was organising us defensively as much as conducting the play through his passing. He did that to great effect in the home game against Palace, with Kouyate and Yates doing a lot of his running for him.

I think we can do better at this stage, but I think he also played an important role during our first run of form this season.

I’m no longer sure you know what a conductor of an orchestra does.

So it's your contention that Brennan and Morgan ripped their left flank apart because he directed them to?

I’m not going to debate this with you as you just get ranty and don’t listen to anyone else’s point of view.

Let me ask, do you think that’s the best goal we’ve scored this year? If so, when did the move start? If not, then there’s little more to say.

My view is that we “ripped their left side apart” because Silva was pulled out of position to create the space by us having the ball for 19 passes moving the ball all over the pitch, via Freuler and Mangala - both of whom were extensively directing traffic. You just judge Freuler by whether he played a “progressive pass”.

You know that I’m disappointed by his overall contribution but also slightly yearning for the type of football we could play where Freuler would be a more notable player.

I’ll get ya Mangala!

I'm sorry, but "Silva was pulled out of position to create the space by us having the ball for 19 passes moving the ball all over the pitch, via Freuler and Mangala - both of whom were extensively directing traffic" is an incredibly generous reading of their involvement in that move. Maybe I'm just not the football savant that you are, but I've just spent the best part of ten minutes rewatching that goal and I can't see anything remarkable done by our midfield - Freuler doesn't draw Silva anywhere, if anything it's Grealish's fault for over committing to close down Williams which leaves Silva with the choice of dropping to cover Morgan, or sticking on Freuler. The goal is made by Morgan's vision and awareness to receive the ball and lay it off quickly to Brennan in space, because Silva covering for Grealish has put another City player in a similar 2v1 decision spot and as soon as he commits to close down Morgan he recognises that Brennan now has room to run with it.

Everyone plays their part when a goal that good is scored, but if that's the best evidence we have of "The Conductor" then he has very much failed to live up to anywhere near that billing.

The conductor is not the lead violin or the bloke clashing the cymbals. You appear more interested in who has played the critical pass Or provided the assist.

Don’t you think it was remarkable that we kept the ball for 19 passes? How many times have we done that this season? I think we must have some of the lowest passing stats in the league/lowest time and passes per possession. It’s fine if that’s how we want to/need to play.

I’m saying that if we were more possession based, Freuler would be more valuable and he would be retaining and recycling the ball more frequently allowing others to express themselves.

See here

Update: Derby were expected to sign Ruben Rodrigues from Notts on a freebie to replace McGoaldrought. Rodrigues has confirmed that he is in fact leaving Notts.... to join Oxford. Derby also have a striker from Cheltenham lined up, but he's going to Charlton.

They have something like 10 senior players and it seems like they're struggling to add to that tally.

I thought the EFL had loosened the restrictions on them and they were allowed to pay transfer fees? And, as they get bigger gates than anyone else in that league (especially with Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday promoted), and expenditure in that division is limited by turnover, they ought to be able to outbid anyone.

Seems to be that the Clowes backlash is probably imminent (if it hasn't already begun), once they realise that being run as a sustainable business isn't actually very much fun.

I expect that the goodwill will extend for a couple more seasons yet. Probably.

Given the struggles they had finding him, they would do well to shut up and support their current owner lest they end up without him.